ENVIRONMENT |
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coalition that advances environmental justice through policy solutions . CNRA will also host one of several topical workshops dedicated to equity to elevate the distinct voices of underserved communities , which are often left out of the conversation on land use and carry the burden of environmental inequity .
While Tiffany Eng , green zones program manager of CEJA , is not involved in the state ’ s 30 by 30 efforts , she speaks to the inherent value of including underserved communities in those conversations . Meaningful engagement with underserved communities means doing the due diligence around education and outreach in the same way it ’ s done for scientific research , so decision-makers include the perspectives of frontline community members before final decisions are made , Eng says . “ This is critical for democracy . It ’ s a cornerstone of what we say that we ’ re supposed to be about in this country .”
Community members have an intimate working knowledge of their neighborhoods that may not appear in scientific data or theory , she says . There are cultural sensitivities , unique community dynamics , a host of challenges communities face and patterns of how community members engage within their neighborhoods that should be included in decisions .
“ I think there ’ s this assumption that local government knows best and I think that what we ’ re trying to say is that there ’ s actually many different kinds of expertise and competence ,” says Eng , who advocates for building community engagement into budgets . “ I think that there ’ s a lot of people who say well , we don ’ t have the money for that , but really what I hear is that you don ’ t have the political will .”
A statewide vision of conservation
CNRA is still in the informationgathering stages of how to reach a statewide vision of conservation . Drafts of the natural and working lands and climate smart strategies ,
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and the pathways to reach 30 by 30 won ’ t be released until this summer and fall , respectively . But Norris points to the Yolo Habitat Conservancy and the South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan , two local efforts in the Sacramento Valley that marry some of the best strategies CNRA wants to scale across the state , which simultaneously address conservation and economic development on a regional scale .
“ SSHCP is designed to protect the beautiful agricultural landscape of South Sacramento and the vernal pool grasslands but also facilitate transportation , a big new connector from ( Highway ) 50 to ( Interstate ) 99 , and
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lots of development along the 50 corridor ( while ) protecting habitat very aggressively ,” Norris says . “ They ’ re living that story .”
The 317,000-acre plan in South Sacramento designates more than 36,000 acres of connected , conserved land outside the urban development area over the next 50 years , protecting 28 sensitive plant and animal species and their habitats . SSHCP is the first habitat conservation plan in the nation to streamline Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act permits for development at the county level , but it took 24 years to move the SSHCP from idea to completion in the summer of 2019 .
“ We mostly failed in five-year increments ,” says Bob Shattuck , president
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of Shattuck Planning and Management , who represents the business community under the SSHCP . There was broad agreement among agencies , developers , the environmental community and the agriculture industry that there was a better way to coordinate local planning with state and federal environmental regulations , says Shattuck , but it was “ a tangle of overlapping , competing and oftentimes conflicting regulations , all of which were developed for specific purposes … but when you combine them all , it ’ s almost impossible to map it out . … There was no coherent overall plan , and the result was just really inefficient in terms of both conservation and economics .”
Negotiations to develop the plan replaced CWA and ESA regulatory nightmares , as well as lawsuits by environmental groups against developers that often stalled projects for years , and provided predictable , streamlined processes and costs . “ That just makes it a lot easier to respond to market demand in a timely fashion . I think it ’ s one of the biggest issues we ’ ve had over the years that helped lead to the housing shortage ,” says Shattuck .
And environmental groups replaced “ postage-stamp size parcels ” of land — some that were poor-quality habitat — that passed as mitigation but were not part of the connected landscape and wouldn ’ t provide longterm sustainability . Instead , the plan approaches mitigation with a regional strategy that conserves thousands of interconnected acres of the best quality habitat , says Sean Wirth , conservation chair for the Mother Lode Chapter of the Sierra Club and a representative of the environmental community under the SSHCP .
But while SSHCP is an excellent example of how the state could approach the coordination of conservation and economic growth and development to help reach 30 by 30 , it also illustrates some of the challenges it could face with land acquisition as it scales efforts statewide . Wirth says the SSHCP is a much smarter plan but “ it ’ s not going
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SHUTTERSTOCK ILLUSTRATION |
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56 comstocksmag . com | July 2021 |